The real life Beverly Hillbillies

Imagine, if you will, a huge mansion in Beverly Hills. And suddenly a bunch of hillbillies moved in to it, and I do mean hillbillies. Starting to sound a bit like an idea for a television series to you? One that maybe you’ve seen and was on the air for the last 30 years in re-runs? Sure it does.
Pa, well, he was kind of the head of the clan, but he didn’t talk much. Granny pretty much ran the place. There was the little brother who was enamored with all that Hollywood had to offer and spent most of his time in trouble with the law. And let’s not forget the pretty little daughter that was something of a hillbilly herself, of course, but was quite a looker. She was very pretty and that is how most of the trouble started.
Yeah, I’m guessing that you’ve picked up on the fact that I’m talking about the famed television series The Beverly Hillbillies, but did you know that the series idea was based off an actual family who lived in Beverly Hills? They didn’t live in the house that you saw in the series, but they did live in a huge mansion. And the pretty young daughter wasn’t named Elly Mae; her real name was Lita.
The family was the McMurray’s and they moved in and set up housekeeping, much to the horror of the rest of the community. They were complete with the rust-bucket truck, the mouthy bossy mother-in-law, the drunken uncle, and all the rest that generally makes for a house of horrible neighbors. The television series cleaned up the family considerably so the audience would love them, and we did. Jed, Granny, Jethro, Elly Mae, all became household names in America.
But the originals, the McMurray’s that the series idea came from; well, they were anything but loveable. Why did Hollywood put up with such a rowdy dirty bunch? Well, because they pretty much had to.
You see, It’s a Little Known Fact that one of Hollywood’s greatest performers and richest men had a short one night tryst with the daughter Lita, who was an extra on the set of one of his movies. Three months later it was learned that she was pregnant. That’s when the star learned two things for the first time. One, he was about to be a father, and two, Lita was only 16 and underage.
The star tried to get out of it with a bribe of nearly $1 million dollars, rather than go to jail for statutory rape, but the girl’s mother insisted on him doing the honorable thing, and sure enough he did. The marriage only lasted two years, but during that time, The Beverly Hillbillies were a reality, right down to the cranky banker who lived next door.
Later, the wild tales of that family became the idea for the famed television series.
The only thing left out of the series was the star himself, the man that married little Elly Mae’s real life inspiration, Lita, and that man was Charlie Chaplin.